Soft law and the implementation problems of the Bologna process
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At European level the implementation of both the Bologna process and of the Lisbon Strategy have been promoting the development of policy implementation tools. In this paper, we discuss the tools of policy implementation and how they contribute to changing the European higher education systems towards the establishment of a European Higher Education Area (EHEA), a goal of the Bologna process. Empirical data is used to assess how far the use of soft law mechanisms has been effective for the implementation of the Bologna process at institutional level, including its coordination capacity.
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